Shopify Subscriptions: How to Sell and Manage Recurring Orders

Here's the part people don't expect. Shopify doesn't add subscriptions on its own, so nothing about subscriptions shows in your admin until an app is installed. And if you later uninstall a third-party subscription app, whatever subscription data you created in the app gets deleted after 48 hours. Subscription contracts and customer payment details are kept, but the rest is gone unless the app has its own backup.

Billing models and subscription types

Shopify describes two ways to bill. Pay-as-you-go charges customers on an ongoing basis, for example monthly or every two weeks. Pre-paid takes one advance payment for a set number of months, then ships on a schedule. On top of that sit three common business models.

Model	How it works	Shopify's view of the risk
Curation or subscription boxes	New, personalised items each delivery; the most common model	High churn and operational complexity
Replenishment	Customers automate buying essentials they run out of	Thin margins
Access	A regular fee for lower prices or members-only perks	More of your time

What the free Shopify Subscriptions app does

• Creates auto-billed subscriptions that renew weekly, monthly or yearly.
• Lets you modify, skip, pause and cancel plans and contracts.
• Applies fixed-amount, percentage or buy X get Y discounts to subscription products.
• Shows a subscription widget on your online store, and details on the product, cart and thank-you pages.
• Sends customers email notifications about their subscription orders, and reports on active, paused and cancelled subscriptions.

Customers sign in to their customer account to resume, skip or cancel, and to change their payment method and shipping address. You can also sell subscriptions in store with Shopify POS. One limit to plan around: bundles aren't compatible with the Shopify Subscriptions app. If you need features it doesn't have, I've compared the subscription apps worth a look.

How to set up a subscription product

1. Install your subscription app and follow its own setup steps first.
2. From your Shopify admin, go to Products and open the product.
3. Tick Only sell this product as a subscription, or untick it to offer one-time purchases too.
4. Check the purchase options cancellation policy Shopify adds automatically, and edit it in Settings, then Policies.
5. Add a subscription product to a cart and read the checkout disclosure the way a customer would.

Subscription-only products, with no one-time option, can be sold only on the Online Store channel. More broadly, subscription products work only on the online store, Shopify POS, Shop and custom storefronts. Staff need a role with the apps and sales channels permission to open the subscription app.

Payment gateways and checkout wording

To use a third-party subscription app, your store needs one of these gateways: Shopify Payments, PayPal Express, Authorize.net, Adyen or Stripe, depending on your region. Each has trade-offs. With Shopify Payments, saved cards can update automatically when a customer gets a new card, which cuts failed payments. That's widely supported in the United States for major card networks, with international support varying. With PayPal Express, third-party transaction fees apply if Shopify Payments isn't switched on, so check Shopify fees before you pick. Authorize.net offers PayPal as its only wallet, and Stripe is open only to select merchants.

Checkout shows a subscription disclosure built from 6 parts, and it can't be removed on any plan. On every plan you can edit the cancel text, the cancellation instructions and the policy it links to. Editing the agreement label and the consent text needs Shopify Plus.

When customers are charged and when orders ship

Customers are billed the day after the subscription is due, at 10:00 am in your store's local time. The shipping method a customer picks at checkout applies only to the first delivery. After that, recurring shipments switch to the cheapest available method, and each one is billed and fulfilled separately, even if delivery dates overlap.

Delivery time sits on top of the frequency. Shopify's example: a subscription that ships on the 15th with a 5-day delivery method reaches the customer in 19 days. A gift card or a Shopify Script discount used on a subscription applies only to the first payment, while automatic discounts from your Discounts section apply to each order.

Managing subscribers and subscription orders

Task	Where and how, as of October 2026
Find subscribers by status	Customers, then Filters, then Product subscription status: active, paused, cancelled, expired, never subscribed or failed payment
Fix a failed payment	Open the customer, edit Payment methods, then send a link to update the card or replace it yourself
See what someone subscribes to	The Active product subscriptions section on the customer profile
Prepaid orders	Show as Scheduled until each fulfilment date, then switch to Unfulfilled
Ship a prepaid delivery sooner	Open the order and click Fulfill early; you can't reschedule

A few rules decide what you can change. Editing an order doesn't change the subscription contract, so future deliveries come from the app. On pay-per-delivery orders you can change quantities, discounts and remove a subscription product, but you can't add a new one. On prepaid orders you can't edit quantities or duplicate the order. Card update links expire 48 hours after they're sent, so resend from the customer profile if someone misses it.

Watch your stock too. Inventory for a prepaid order is reserved only when each fulfilment date arrives, not when the order is placed. And if a first subscription order is flagged as high risk, renewals fail until you fulfil or cancel it.

My verdict on Shopify subscriptions

I'd start with the free Shopify Subscriptions app if you sell replenishment products and use Shopify Payments, because card updates and accelerated checkouts are already there and you manage everything from the admin. I'd look at a third-party app if you need bundles, and skip subscriptions altogether if your stock is patchy, since renewals depend on it being there on the day.

Failed-payment chasing and stock checks are exactly the repeat jobs that are worth automating once subscriptions grow. I run AI training and workshops for teams, and help businesses with AI enablement and workflow automation, so the busywork runs itself and people get time back. Most of that work is with SaaS marketing teams and small businesses. Here's how we can work together.

Frequently asked questions

Does Shopify have built-in subscriptions?

You need a subscription app. Shopify's own free Shopify Subscriptions app works, or you can use a third-party app from the Shopify App Store.

When are Shopify subscription customers charged?

The day after the subscription is due, at 10:00 am in your store's local time.

Can I sell Shopify subscriptions in my physical shop?

Yes. You can sell subscriptions in store with Shopify POS.

What happens if I uninstall a Shopify subscription app?

Subscription data created in the app, apart from contracts and customer payment details, is deleted after 48 hours unless the app has a backup.

Can customers cancel their own Shopify subscription?

With the Shopify Subscriptions app, customers can resume, skip or cancel from their customer account and update their payment method and address.